


grocery stores, lamp lit streets, and half-rolled masks

by ravens_tell_stories



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (for me), (not to the world just to MJ), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Cuddling, F/M, First Kiss, Identity Reveal, MJ doesn't know about peter being spiderman, MJ is a smartass, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker Has a Crush, Spideychelle, Swearing, but uh, i'm only a couple chapters in so far so am not quite sure what to tag it, it'll be a while until they get together but like not forever, kinda slow burn?, natasha is dead even though it breaks my heart, so tags will be updating as we go, steve is dead even though it breaks my heart, stupid(ly adorable) dates, there is a lot of broken heart to deal with here, tony is dead even though it breaks my heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24630556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravens_tell_stories/pseuds/ravens_tell_stories
Summary: “So,” he asked. “If this… Peter Parker isn’t your boyfriend, who is?”MJ felt her eyes widen at the question, both the words and the voice.“N-no,” her voice cracked embarrassingly and she swallowed, cleared her throat. “No one.”He shook his head, and she had the oddest feeling that he was raising an eyebrow under the mask, maybe smirking. Maybe both.“That can’t be true,” he said. “No way.”----spideychelle, plus the stress of finals and with a healthy dollop of teenage stupidity.
Relationships: Academic Decathlon Team (Spider-Man: Homecoming) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Avengers Team
Comments: 9
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [queen_coral_23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_coral_23/gifts).



> hey!! this is a birthday fic for the wonderful amazing lovely beautiful queen_coral_23!!! happy birthday my dear, have a wonderful day and week and year and life. i love you <3
> 
> anyways, about the story: takes place in their junior year, some time in early December. everything through to Endgame happened, but then in FFH they all just had a normal vacation and Peter never found the courage to talk to MJ and she never even suspected.
> 
> i'm only about halfway through the second chapter of this, and I honestly have no idea how many chapters there's going to be, but I'm going to spend the next few days working on it and the plot and everything so hopefully I should have a chapter count and more complete tags by this weekend. also, i'm going to tryyy and update once a week?? hopefully twice, but I'll set a schedule for every tuesday and if I can throw another one in every once in a while we'll call it a bonus. also, this first chapter is not quite a thousand words which i hattttte i hate short chapters like this so expect all of the other ones to be at least a bit longer, hopefully a LOT longer.
> 
> okay, i think that's it, enjoy!

MJ reclined over the back of her chair, a yawn escaping her lips, as she put her pen down and sighed heavily. She had been studying for well over four hours now, but she still had two chapters to review for her AP Psych class. Her stomach grumbled, protesting loudly at the thought. She glanced over at her snack supplies, wrinkling her nose when she saw the pile was empty. Normally she didn’t go through food this fast, but Peter and Ned had been over earlier to study and, apparently, stuff their faces.

_ Well,  _ MJ thought.  _ At least I have an excuse to get off my ass. _

She rose from her seat and winced as her joints popped loudly.

Gathering her things took longer than it should have, but in her defense, it  _ was _ almost midnight on a Tuesday. She paused in trying to find her keys, wondering for a minute if maybe the snacks could wait until morning. She did live in one of the worst parts of town, after all. Another rumble from her stomach made up her mind, though, and she quickly grabbed her keys and headed out the door.

The store was only nine blocks away. She would be home and finished with the last two chapters long before her mom got home from the night shift at four AM.

Probably.

A shiver went up her spine and she cursed herself for not putting on another layer, but it was too late now.

It only took a few minutes before she had gotten into the busiest part of town, passing bars and drug stores rather than houses and apartment buildings. A group of men pushed their way out of a pub across the street, laughing and stumbling and shouting. MJ grimaced and walked faster, straining her tired legs to get away from them. Their voices suddenly quieted and silence descended on the street.

Silence that was broken when one of them let out a loud, drunken whistle. Her face scrunched up involuntarily at the noise, and she raised her hands over her shoulders, middle fingers up.

Another of the men (or maybe the same one) guffawed loudly. MJ quickened her pace, almost running now, trying to get as far away as possible. She heard footsteps pounding on the asphalt behind her, and turned just in time to see a figure streak past her and skid to a stop a few feet ahead. One of the other ones had sprinted out onto the street, and the third was still coming from behind her.

The one on the street grinned, his face twisting up into something inhumane, and then the three of them started walking. MJ’s breath started to pick up its pace, her heart hammering away in her chest, as she slowly backed into the alley at her back.

She swallowed, completely cornered.  _ Well. Fuck. _

  
~~  
  


Peter focused on the feeling in the back of his head, following it towards one of the worse parts of town. He was supposed to be studying, May’s orders, but his Peter Tingle™ had been acting up in a way that he just couldn’t ignore. It seemed to be leading him directly to something, and he could just sort of  _ tell _ that it was important.

He shot another web out, swinging around a lamp post and landing on top of a little barista, barely stopping himself from falling down into a dark alleyway. He was about to swing over to the next building on the block when the feeling blinked out. He furrowed his brow, looking around in confusion, until his gaze alighted on a girl in the alley down below. She was surrounded by three men, all of whom were swaying as they advanced towards her.

Peter tensed his muscles, preparing to jump down onto the closest guy, when he spoke.

“Oh, I recognize her! She’s a junior at school!” His words were slurred, but Peter had heard his voice before. It was William Frank, a senior at Midtown High.

“You’re right!” One of the others responded. “It’s that weird death girl. The one who’s dating, uhh…”

He trailed off, deep in thought, before the third one picked up the narration.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s the nerdy guy, y’know? He’s super weird, likes chemistry and shit… God, what’s his name?”

They sat in silence for a few seconds before William shouted. “Peter Parker!”

Peter jumped, almost falling into the alley.

The other two agreed loudly. “Right, right. She’s dating Peter--”

The girl tensed and lashed out at the second guy. He caught her wrist a moment before it hit his face and she yelped slightly before schooling her features into a glare.

“Peter Parker is  _ not _ my boyfriend.”

Ouch.

Her voice was full of venom, but he would recognize it in a hundred other voices.

_ MJ. _

_ Fuck. _

Anger and restlessness welled up, but Peter pushed them down and resisted the urge to jump in without a plan.

“Karen?” he whispered to his suit.

“Yes, Peter?”

“Which of those three guys is the least drunk?”

He heard a bit of mechanical whirring for a moment before Karen answered.

“The one nearest to you, Dylan Turner, is the least inebriated of the three oponents. His blood-alcohol percentage is approximately 0.04 percent, while William Frank’s is 0.076 and Mark Craig’s is 0.085. Is there anything else you need to know about them, Peter?”

His brow furrowed briefly. “Wait, they’re all seniors. How did they get that much booze?”

He hadn’t been talking to Karen, but she answered anyways. “All three of them were Snapped, which means that they could still have identification that says they are older than 21. Will that be all?”

“Yeah, thanks, Karen,” Peter mumbled distractedly.

He took a deep breath before diving headfirst into the alley.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the second chapter! i'm not super happy with this, even though it is longer than the last one, but i'd rather get it out here and maybe come back and edit it later than mess up the schedule.
> 
> hope you enjoy!!!

MJ screamed as a red and blue blur dropped from the sky onto Dylan’s shoulders, sending him sprawling to the ground - where he hit his head. The blur flipped back to its feet, releasing Dylan, but he didn’t get back up.

“Hey! You alright, ma’am?”

Another, smaller shriek escaped her lips at the words and she turned to see that the blur was none other than the “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” himself.

Later, of course, she’d deny both sounds - in her defense, though, she had almost been mugged and it  _ was _ the middle of the night.

“Um, yeah?” she gasped in response, then waved frantically as the second drunk dude ran towards Spider-Man. 

He spun and gave the guy a sharp punch to the jaw, sending him sprawling backwards and probably knocking him unconscious.

It only took a few seconds for him to send the third one to the ground as well with an elbow to the face, and then he was standing in front of MJ, breathing barely disturbed.

“So,” he asked. “If this… Peter Parker isn’t your boyfriend, who is?”

MJ felt her eyes widen at the question, both the words and the voice.

It tickled the back of her mind, whispered a recognition that told her she knows that voice. She knows him.

She pushed those thoughts away, though, and concentrated instead on his tone - it’s light, easy, but when she dissected it a bit more she found breathlessness, awe, and just a tiny bit of jealousy, well masked behind layers of other emotions.

Then, finally, she finished processing the words themselves, and she blurted out her answer more than a minute after the question was asked.

“N-no,” her voice cracked embarrassingly and she swallowed, cleared her throat. “No one.”

He shook his head, and she had the oddest feeling that he was raising an eyebrow under the mask, maybe smirking. Maybe both.

“That can’t be true,” he said. “No way.”

Her wits have started to come back, enough that she can scowl and respond in a respectable way. “What,” she drawled, voice only shaking a little bit. “Because I’m an average picture of teenage beauty?”

Spider-Man laughed and shook his head.

“No, because you seem intelligent and proud. And your objective beauty can’t hurt your love life, either.”

MJ snorted. “Proud?”

“Well,” he cocked his head to the side, sounding a little flustered. “Y’know. You probably stand up for what you believe in, and… and stuff.”

She rolled her eyes and they stood in silence for a moment before Spider-Man cleared his throat and gestured awkwardly towards the street.

“So, d’you want me to walk you home?”

Visibly bristling, MJ glared. “Why?”

He held up both hands in a placating manner and shrugged. “Just figured you wouldn’t want to walk alone - most people don’t after things like this. But if you feel okay about it, that’s totally fine, too.”

MJ considered this and then nodded slowly. “I guess… it’d be nice to walk with someone.”

Spider-Man nodded and held an arm out to indicate she should go first, to which she crossed her arms across her chest and glared again. He shrugged once more and took a few strolling steps towards the entrance of the alley, waiting for MJ to fall into step beside him. She did, and they both hesitated at the mouth of the alley.

“Which way?” he asked.

She tilted her head. “My house is right, but I was on my way to the store, which is left.”

His (creepy) mechanical eyes twitched a bit and he took off to the left, nearly skipping with - excitement, maybe? That didn’t make much sense. Before she could ponder it too much, he was speaking.

“It occurs to me that I don’t even know your name,” he said, a grin in his voice.

“Michelle,” she answered before she could consider it.  _ Consider what? Whether or not to tell this literal superhero who just saved my life what my name is? That doesn’t even make sense. _

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she cast a glance at the side of his face. “What about you?”

He gave her a look. “Dude. I’m Spider-Man.”

“I  _ mean _ ,” she scowled. “Something I can actually call you. Saying Spider-Man out loud just… feels weird.”

“Oh,” he shrugged again. “I dunno, I guess you can call me… Ben. Or Tony. Either works.”

She arched a brow. “Am I right in assuming neither of those are your real name?”

“Yeah. Father figures, both of them.”

“Wait - Tony as in Tony Stark? You knew him?”

Ben (or whatever) nodded and crossed his arms almost self-consciously. “Worked with him, for a while. I was in Germany, with the whole thing with Cap, and then I did my own thing for a little bit, and then when Thanos snapped I was in space. It was pretty cool, but…”

MJ frowned. “What?”

“I dunno. It was really, really scary, honestly.”

“Scary? How? You’re a  _ superhero _ .”

He laughed a little and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know, but that’s not always a good thing. I mean, sure, being able to stick to stuff is cool as hell, and super-healing comes in handy a  _ lot  _ in this job, but it also means that I’ve got some pretty bad nightmares.”

“Of what?” her voice was gentle, prodding lightly. “I mean obviously there’s the whole crime thing, but that seems like it’d be pretty easy for you to normalize it quickly, right?”

“You’d think,” this time Ben’s laugh was bitter. “There’s several things that I dream about a lot, but the one I was talking about was the Snap.” He slowed and leaned against a building they were passing, only about a block away from the store. “With my healing, I, uh… I kept trying to fix myself. To knit my atoms back together while the literal forces of the universe tried to tear me apart. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever experienced. And, on top of that, I have this sixth sense that lets me know about dangerous things before they happen - useful in gun fights, not very in cosmic disruptions causing me to actually die. I almost threw up even as I was turning into dust.”

“Damn,” MJ breathed after a moment of stunned silence. “Holy shit, Ben.”

Ben shrugged  _ again _ . “It’s alright. Things like that are a part of the job description. I signed up for it.”

He pushed himself off the wall and tilted his head in the direction of the store. MJ nodded at his silent question and they began walking once more as he continued his story.

“I mean, I’ve also had an entire building dropped on me. And got hit by a train. It’s just something that happens.”

MJ gaped incredulously. “That’s fucked up. I mean, you - you’re just a kid! You shouldn’t be dealing with shit like that! How old are you, anyways?”

“Seventeen,” he replied. “Almost eighteen.”

“You’re  _ literally a minor _ . Even if you signed a contract about this - which I somehow doubt - it wouldn’t be binding, because you’re  _ literally a minor _ .”

“I guess,” Ben agreed reluctantly. “I never signed anything, no, because the Sokovia Accords include revealing the hero’s identity when they sign. So officially speaking I’m not technically an Avenger, but Mr. Stark made me an unofficial one while we were in space.”

There was something in the way he said the billionaire’s name that itched at MJ’s mind. It was strangely familiar to her, as if she had heard it before, but that wasn’t possible.

He cleared his throat and she shook herself out of her thoughts to see they were already in front of the 7-11 she’d been walking to.

MJ resisted the urge to fidget her hands and cocked her head to the side.

“D’you want to come in with me?”

“Sure,” there was a grin in Ben’s voice, and MJ lamented briefly the fact that she couldn’t see his smile.

She smiled awkwardly and took a step towards the door. He rushed to pull it open in front of her and gestured dramatically inside, then followed her in and let the door fall shut behind him.

“What are we here for?” he asked, clapping and looking around.

“Just, like, chips. Maybe some chocolate,” MJ said and started to wander towards the racks of enticing food. “Normally I have plenty, but a couple of my classmates came over today and apparently made it their personal mission to eat all of the food in my house.”

Ben laughed lightly. “Whoops. Why do you need chips and chocolate at 12:30 in the morning, anyways? Shouldn’t you be, y’know, asleep?”

“I’ve got a test tomorrow. I’m studying.”

He made a choking noise in the back of his throat that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “ _ Studying _ ? You?”

MJ gave him her most menacing glare. “Yeah. Why?”

He shrunk back a bit and raised one hand as if to run it through his hair. “I, uh, just meant - you-- you’re really smart? A-and I kinda figured, I guess, that you wouldn’t n-need to study?”

Her expression morphed to one of unimpressed neutrality.

“Right,” she deadpanned. “Sure.”

“Oh. My.  _ God _ ,” a voice squealed from behind her. She turned to see a girl standing with her phone out and her jaw hanging open in an almost comical way. “Oh my  _ god _ ! You’re Spider-Man!”

Ben shifted uncomfortably and gave a half wave. “Uh, yeah. H-hey.”

MJ snorted and turned back to grab a couple bags of chips off the shelf while the girl squealed and flailed around.

“Can I get a picture?!” she nearly screamed at one point, which resulted in MJ taking the most hilarious photo she’d ever seen in her life while the girl shouted and jumped around and Ben stood awkwardly, crossing and uncrossing his arms as if he didn’t know what to do with them.

Finally, after about seven minutes of this madness, Ben convinced the girl (who happened to be the clerk of the store) to ring up MJ’s purchases and let them both be on their way.

As soon as the door swung shut behind them, MJ burst out in cackles that echoed through the quiet street.

“ _ That _ ,” she gasped once she regained her breath a moment later, leaning against a wall to avoid falling flat on her face. “ _ That _ was hilarious. Peak comedy content. Christ, dude, are you that bad at interacting with people all the time?”

He ducked his head self-consciously and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I dunno, I mean, I guess?” he said. “Sometimes I’m not? But I always just feel weird when people talk to me? Like, I’m just a normal kid from Queens. I guess I’m just not used to being recognized like that.”

MJ, having recovered from her fit of wheezing giggles and sobered slightly at how embarrassed he was, tilted her head and frowned. “Well, you deserve it. You’ve saved hundreds of people, Ben.”

Ben lifted one shoulder in half a shrug and nodded towards the street. MJ glared a little but followed him back to the sidewalk, walking side by side back to her house.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for checking this out!! please let me know if you enjoyed it, and be sure to stick around for more.
> 
> also, happy birthday coral!!!!! i love you mêl, you're the best. <3<3<3


End file.
